Test run: The Korean Missile Directorate conducting a test launch of an improved strategic cruise missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea. — AFP
The country said that leader Kim Jong-un has supervised the successful tests of two types of missiles – one designed to carry a “super-large conventional warhead” and the other likely for a nuclear warhead, as he ordered officials to bolster up his country’s military capabilities to repel United States-led threats.
The tests appear to be the same as the multiple missile launches that neighbouring countries said North Korea performed on Wednesday, extending its run of weapon displays as confrontations with the US and South Korea escalate.
The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim oversaw the launch of the country’s newly-built Hwasongpho-11-Da- 4.5 ballistic missile tipped with a dummy “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead”.
It said the test-firing was meant to verify an ability to accurately hit a 320km range target, suggesting it’s a weapon aimed at striking sites in South Korea.
KCNA said Kim also guided the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile, a word implying the weapon was developed to carry a nuclear warhead.
After the tests, Kim stressed the need to continue to “bolster up the nuclear force” and acquire “overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons, too,” according to KCNA. It cited Kim as saying that North Korea can thwart its enemies’ intentions to invade only when it has strong military power.
KCNA released photos of a missile hitting a ground target. South Korea’s military said later it assessed that both ballistic and cruise missiles fired by North Korea the previous day landed in the North’s mountainous northeastern region.
North Korea typically test- launches missiles off its east coast, and it’s highly unusual for the country to fire missiles at land targets likely because of concerns about potential damages on the ground if the weapons land in unintended areas.
Jung Chang-wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said North Korea likely aims to show it’s confident about the the accuracy of its new ballistic missile.
Jung said the missile’s high-powered warhead is meant to attack ground targets, but North Korea hasn’t acquired weapons that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground structures. — AP
